They were popular, influential and often hugely successful, but then they vanished from bookshelves, even in their own lifetimes. There are a great many authors we grew up with whose books became touchstones in our lives, who have simply disappeared. Adopting false identities, switching genders, losing fortunes, descending into alcoholism, discovering new careers, the stories of the missing authors are often more surprising than any of the fictions they wrote. But their books live on in our homes and our memories. They’re passed to our children, to our friends, to secondhand shops. And sometimes they surprise everyone by revealing their secrets… These are the extraordinary stories of over one hundred forgotten authors. Some chose their own fates, some were simply unlucky, but many should be remembered and revered by all book lovers.
Author
Librarian note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name Christopher Fowler was an English novelist living in London. His books contain elements of black comedy, anxiety and social satire. As well as novels, he wrote short stories, scripts, press articles and reviews. He lived in King's Cross, on the Battlebridge Basin, and chose London as the backdrop of many of his stories because any one of the events in its two-thousand-year history can provide inspiration. In 1998 he was the recipient of the BFS Best Short Story of the Year, for 'Wageslaves'. Then, in 2004, The Water Room was nominated for the CWA People's Choice Award, Full Dark House won the BFS August Derleth Novel of The Year Award 2004 and 'American Waitress' won the BFS Best Short Story of the Year 2004. The novella 'Breathe' won BFS Best Novella 2005.
